Wild Rift Icons preview: Immortals, Sentinels carry the banner for North America
The 2022 League of Legends: Wild Rift Icons Global Championship is almost upon us.
From 14 June to 9 July, 24 of the best Wild Rift teams from all across the world will be battling to claim the lion's share of the tournament's US$2 million prize pool and become the first-ever Wild Rift world champions.
Fans of Wild Rift esports will also finally get the chance to see the best teams from each region duke it out on the big stage.
With that said, let's get to know the teams fighting for the title better.
In this series of previews, I'm here to tell you who are the icons, the star players, that you should look out for from each team from each region.
Let's start with North America's representatives, Immortals and Sentinels.
Immortals - The Lebmont show
Immortals reigned as the undefeated kings during the past competitive year, winning every tournament they attended in dominant fashion.
A lot of their success can be attributed to their roster change bringing in Seungchan "Lebmont" Won in the Jungle after their loss to Tribe Gaming last year.
Lebmont is undoubtedly the best Jungler in NA. With standout performances on his signature champions like Graves, Jayce, and Lee Sin, he's carried his team to victory by attaining huge leads in the early game.
Not even including his high GPM and DPM, Lebmont is one of the main driving forces and the backbone in this team.
Immortals as a team facilitate this carry playstyle, with Hamza "IraqiZorro" Najim picking up the weakside duty while Jang "Hoon" Du-hoon and Ethan "Charm" Lin play champions with early roaming potential or enchanters to boost Lebmont's ability to carry the game.
Immortals also have gotten memed a bit.
Many consider them to be a Korean team rather than a fully-fledged North American one, with Lebmont, Hoon, Gume, and even their coach Ahn "PYU" Jeong-ho all being from Korea.
Drafted into the same group as KT Rolster Y, the kings of Korea, it'll be interesting to see if the teams go up against each other and how Lebmont will fare against the best in the world.
Immortals roster:
Hamza "IraqiZorro" Najim
Seungchan "Lebmont" Won
Jang "Hoon" Du-hoon
Gichan "Gume" Won
Ethan "Charm" Lin
Sentinels - Mali, from Zero to Hero
Sentinels had a lot more turmoil on their road to Icons.
The team have struggled a lot in the previous year, with 8th place finishes across multiple tournaments. That was until they picked up 17-year old super rookie James "Mali" Liu.
Mali, who previously only competed in amateur teams, was known as an up-and-coming star in the North American scene with a strong laning phase and flashy mechanics to boot.
He was the star power that Sentinels were missing.
The team showed immediate success after Mali joined.
They started by winning smaller local tournaments and progressed to having strong podium finishes in the official Riot organised competitions, mostly facing losses against the titans that were Immortals.
A highlight reel could be made of Mali's stellar teamfighting and mechanical ability on his signature champions of Diana, Riven, and Akali, with multiple teamfights won solely because of his 1v9 performances.
He drew multiple bans to his champion pool from many teams due to his capability to constantly outplay opponents and skilfully pilot whichever champion he was on.
Naturally, this brought him into the conversation of being the best mid laner in North America.
Although there has been an uprising of a more utility focused mid lane meta, I still look forward to seeing Mali show us some of his magic on the international stage.
Sentinels roster:
Matthew "MTS" Stover
Kevin "Sheesh" Chavez
James "Mali" Liu
Tanner "Rest" Scadden
Jacob "Beginnings" Chavez
The 2022 League of Legends: Wild Rift Icons Global Championship will be held at the Suntec Convention and Exhibition Center in Singapore from 14 June to 9 July.
Wild Rift Icons will begin with the Play-In stage 14 to 18 June, followed by the Group Stage from 21 to 25 June, and with the Knockout Stage taking place from 1 to 9 July.
You can catch the action live on the official Wild Rift Esports Twitch and YouTube channels.
Glaceox is a Singaporean Wild Rift coach with five years of coaching experience spanning across League of Legends PC as well. He also streams and makes community guides for Wild Rift.
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